India Seeks Access to Google, Skype Communication

Indian government has asked Google Inc, Skype and other social networking sites to comply with the security agencies requirement—to allow their user to services to guard against terrorism and other crimes, a minister said on Wednesday.

Junior Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Sachin Pilot said that there are a whole list of companies that have been asked to give [access]...provide solutions.

Law enforcement agencies, the home ministry and intelligence agencies want that information for national security, Pilot told reporters on the sidelines of an industry event.

India’s push for access to encrypted communication services is triggered by the fear, that terrorists will use services offered by Skype and Google as they are heavily encrypted and security agencies can't monitor them.

Google and Skype said they had not received any communication from the Indian authorities. Thereby we are unable to comment on it, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The government had previously demanded Research In Motion to provide access to communications, including e-mails on its BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). While RIM has already offered systems to monitor internet browsing and messenger services to its users, it said that the encryption keys to access the mail on BES are with customers and not with the company.

India says that companies which offer encrypted communication services will have to allow monitoring by security agencies if they want to operate in the country